Mette Ivie Harrison's Blog, page 58
October 22, 2012
Monday Book Recs--William Alexander's Goblin Secrets
This isn’t your typical middle grade fantasy set in medieval never-never land or in a loosely imagined Faerie. Alexander’s world building is subtly done. There are elements of the traditional fantasy, goblins and an evil stepmother, a missing brother who has to be saved, a troupe of theater players who save the day. But Alexander uses them all in such different ways that I kept being surprised, all in a pleasant way.
In addition to that, there are the stranger elements to the book that make it something special and worthy of adult readers. This isn’t a fantasy, after all, or at least it isn’t just a fantasy. The power that Graba has over her “grandchildren” is sinister and intriguing. At first, you think she’s just a grandmother, but then she’s a bit of Baba Yaga and maybe Darth Vader, as well.
I liked the naming conventions, a pleasure for someone who loves language. I loved the inside view of the theater troupe from someone who knows the world well. I loved talking about what is real and what isn’t and why we need pretend.
October 19, 2012
Friday Tri: Doing a Run-Through
If you can do it, many races have a Friday night or week-before option where they will do a race preview. This can be very helpful for visualizing the race, even if you only drive through the bike section and walk through part of the run. Obviously, you don't want to expend too much energy the night before a race. For me, when I did my first triathlon, I hadn't done any open water swimming before, so I got out into the lake and swam for about 15 minutes the night before so I felt more comfortable and that was a good compromise, not too aerobic. (Although I recommend doing a lot more open water swimming before a race than that—sometimes optimal conditions don't happen.)
One year, I drove down to a race venue and ran through the run course every other week for six weeks before the race. I dropped more than a minute off my time by doing this. I don't know why it works, but studies show that it does. Your mind does better when it knows what it is doing intimately well. And this is a race that I've done twenty times before. But still, the closer you do it to race time, the better. Mimic race conditions as much as possible, as well. Time of day, weather, etc. If you can, of course. Don't kill yourself. My first Ironman, I drove 12 hours to and 12 hours from the race venue to bike the bike course. It ended up raining the whole time and I got lost. Still, I was glad I had done it. I felt like I had handled the worst the course had to offer me. Great confidence builder.
On the morning of the race, I usually go check in, get my race bib, cap, bike number and timing chip at the registration desk. I get body marked and then head into transition. I often try to get a spot close to the exit with the idea that I run faster if I am not pushing a bike. Yeah, it's only a half of a second difference, but it feels important. Also, it can help keep you from getting into traffic through transition. Some races have preassigned spots, so then there's no question where you set up your bike. You'll figure it out as soon as you get to the race. I admit, I will sometimes move other bikes slightly to the side to make room for my bike at the front. I only do this if I feel like there is genuinely plenty of space and I am very gentle with the equipment of others. But be warned, not all competitors will sit by and allow this. You could be yelled at, even if there is no other space for your bike.
After I pick out my bike location and hang my bike on the bar, I get out my wetsuit bag. I make sure I have goggles and cap in it. Then I leave it to the side. I put on my wetsuit about 20-30 minutes before the race starts. Not yet. I lay out running shoes. If I'm putting on my biking shoes and socks, I put those out, too. (Sometimes I leave shoes on my bike and don't wear socks. It depends on the race and the transition area—how dirty it is, mostly). Then I leave my stuff where it is and start counting racks. I make sure that I know where you bike out of and bike in, and where you run out of. It's not always the same side of transition.
Then I do a little mini-run through. I pretend I am coming out of the water, run through transition to find my bike. I count racks in my mind and try to think of any other visual markers that will help. One year a race labeled racks with letters of the alphabet, but beware that those markers may not be there when you are coming through or may be covered. Counting works best. Then I do a run through with my bike, riding it a few hundred meters out of transition to make sure the gears are right. Then I turn back, do a mock run through coming off the bike and into transition again. And running out. This doesn't tire me out at all, really. It helps me enormously to have confidence in transition and these days, transition is one of my fastest elements. I will sometimes do run-throughs three or four times before I get into the water and do a 5-10 minute swim warmup, very easy but to loosen my shoulders.
Doing run-throughs of stressful events is not just a principle of racing. I think it works for everything in life. Worried about a call with an editor? Run through it in your mind. Imagine what things you are going to talk about. Worried about meeting an author? Do a run through with a friend playing the part. Does this sound silly? I do this all the time and maybe I'm neurotic, but it works for me.
October 18, 2012
11 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Villain
Is this person an actor or a reactor?
Does the villain think there is a good outcome likely?
Does the villain have a past with another character?
What does the villain hate and why?
What is the villain afraid of?
What does the villain think is good or bad?
What person in your life resembles this villain? Who would defend this person and why?
What political party would the villain belong to?
Who would vote for the villain?
When would the villain give up?
What makes the villain supremely happy?
October 17, 2012
Writing Wednesday: Sabotaging Yourself
I did the St. George marathon last weekend and while it wasn't a bad race, I didn't perform up to expectations. I suspected the day before and the morning of that it wasn't going to be a stellar day. I did a lot of things right during the race. I listened to my body and didn't push too hard. I actually took off 3 minutes or more from my most recent marathon time, mostly because I went slower the first 20 miles of the race and that really paid off the last 6 miles, just as they say. Don't try to bank time early on. On the other hand, the last 5 miles of the race, I began to be more and more hunched to my left side. I kicked my right ankle bloody with my left foot for reasons I could not understand in the confusion of the race. I ended up very confused at the finish line and with a bunch of volunteers asking me questions about my name and where I was. My final time was 3:47, two minutes and two seconds off Boston Qualifying time, which I really wanted to hit so I could do Boston when my daughter is out at MIT.
I had a grand time doing the race with my husband and oldest brother, don't get me wrong. It's been a long time since I enjoyed the time surrounding a race so much. I haven't seen my brother in years and it was hilarious to see how similar we are. (For one thing, he counts every step, but on his left leg while I use my right leg. And other weird obsessions about racing which I'm use freaked my husband out a bit.) It has taken me a few days to figure out what mattered about the race and what things I did wrong. I honestly couldn't figure out what my injuries were for a few days because I was in so much pain it was hard to isolate any difference from other races.
My assessment: I sabotaged myself to some degree. Here are some of the things I did wrong:
Not having faith in the plan.
The week of a race, I often end up wanting to put in just one last hard workout. This is partly because I am not sure that what I have done before is enough. A part of my mind realizes that I am risking blowing up at the race because I haven't rested enough. But there have been several times this season when I found myself not resisting the temptation. I don't say I couldn't resist it, but I didn't.
Habit.
Put simply, I have a habit of doing a lot of hard workouts. To some extent, this is part of the reason that I have continued to improve in the sport. Working hard is good for getting your body to do the hard work of making more muscles. On the other hand, working too hard when you are supposed to be resting for a race is almost more of a nervous tick than anything else.
Taking advice from someone who isn't me.
It's great to listen to others and to think about whether or not what they are suggesting may work, but you also have to listen to yourself and what is right for you. Your goals may be different. Your body is certainly different. In racing, what this meant for me was that even though the pacer group had decided to keep an absolutely steady pace no matter what the terrain was, it makes more sense for me to go easier up hill and harder downhills, in order to keep a steady effort level.
Staying in the comfort zone.
I love me my treadmill. I run on the treadmill all the time. And by all the time, I mean all the time. This is my comfort zone. I like having a bathroom easily available, unlimited water and other food, a towel to wipe off sweat, and TV. But a treadmill isn't the road. And in this particular case, one of the problems I had was that I kept favoring the right side of the road. The cant in the road meant that I ended up putting too much stress on my right leg and had a disastrously uneven stride the last 5 miles of the marathon.
This has caused me to wonder about what I am doing in my writing life that is equally self-sabotaging. And also has caused me to think about what I can do about those problems. Sometimes I become anxious about the ups and down of the writing world (especially the downs of the writing world for me in the last couple of years). But it's important to trust the overall plan, to trust that I am writing the books I want to write, that I have a wonderful agent who is doing the right things for my long-term career, and not to do stupid short-term things because they feel good right now.
Habits? I like to write every day. I like to see my word counts go up on first drafts in particular. But this produces a lot of manuscripts and I am not sure that this is beneficial all the time when I can't publish or promote that many books. I also think I may be spreading my focus too thin on too many books rather than spending quiet time thinking about books and how to make them better before and after a first draft which might actually be better for my career than what I am currently doing. But thinking is harder, strangely, than writing.
Another thing that is hard about writing is not listening to other people. It's great to get together with authors and talk shop. But it can be tempting to start wondering if what author A is doing is what you should be doing, too. Even if you have already decided not to do that. Second-guessing who you are and what works best for you can be really damaging.
And then there is comfort. Doing more self-promotion would probably benefit my career, as well, but I don't do because it is outside my comfort zone. So just like I have imbalances in my stride, I end up with imbalances in my career. I don't have any easy solutions for these problems, either in my sports career or elsewhere, but I am trying to focus on at least seeing the truth and sitting with it a while before I try to change it.
October 16, 2012
Making Heaven Part 5
Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
In my early years, I remember being told that this verse has to do with proselytizing the “gospel” and the obligation of those who know the “good news” to share it with others. As I have reread it recently, it occurred to me to think of “saltiness” differently. What is the saltiness of salt? It is the thing which makes salt salt. And to me, that means that I need to work on making sure that when I interact with the world, I am more essentially me.
What does that mean, more me? Well, that is part of the problem, isn't it? We live in a world now (and Christ certainly saw this tendency way back when) where the false is prioritized above the true. Pretending is easier than actually being good. And so we forget who we are. We hide it until no one knows what authenticity is.
But if we are willing to do the work of finding who we are again, then we will be true salt, with its saltiness intact. We can be the light of the next verse, but only if we know who we are. For me, I think that means being a writer. It also means being a mother and a Mormon, though my true kind of Mormonism may not be the same as someone else's. To hide and pretend is to give up my saltiness, to become useless. I can only share something with the world if I first know who I am.
When people see our authentic selves, they are inspired to be authentic, as well. This glorifying of God is the glorification of what we see here, His works here on this earth. People become happier when they are freed to be truthful in the best sense, and when they are unchained from the fetters of doing what is not real.
October 11, 2012
16 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Hero
What has he trained to do?
What does he wish he could do, but won't allow himself?
When does he give up?
What kind of pain can he not bear?
Who would he give his life for?
What moment in the past does he wish he could do over? What would he do instead?
Who in his life does he miss the most who is gone?
What compromises has he made?
What did his father want him to become?
Who would his mother want him to marry?
What is his greatest secret?
What hidden weakness will he not admit even to himself?
When he has nightmares, do bad things happen to him or does he do bad things to others?
What does he do when served a food he does not like?
Whom he can never trust?
What music does he love?
October 10, 2012
15 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Heroine
What does she want?
What kind of person is she immediately attracted to? Or repelled by?
What is she good at? Bad at?
What does she think she is good at or bad at?
What has she studied?
Who have her best friends been?
What is her greatest regret?
What is she most afraid of?
What is worst than the worst for her?
What can she not imagine because she has never experienced it before?
Who would she ask to help her? Who would she never ask to help her?
Has she ever done something to hurt someone else? When and why?
Who was her first crush?
Who has betrayed her?
What details of beauty does she notice most?
October 9, 2012
8 Questions to Ask Yourself About Word Use in Your Novel
Are my names difficult to pronounce? How difficult do I want them to be?
When were these words invented? Before or after the time period in which my book is set or purportedly set?
What stories lie behind the names of your characters? Or what qualities are they to represent?
Why are the places in your novel called what they are called? What languages are dead and what peoples did they represent?
What words are new to this world and what political/cultural shifts do those words hint at?
What accents exist in this world? How does that change how people see each other? What political and cultural differences come with different accents? Why are certain accents seen as privileged and others not? What words do people use to describe favorable/unfavorable accents?
What misunderstandings occur because of different language use, either within the same language or across language?
What translators exist? What position do they hold in society and why?
October 8, 2012
Monday Book Recs--City of Angels by Sheralyn Pratt
I don't read a lot of "Mormon" fiction, in part because I think a lot of it doesn't adhere to the literary standards I got used to in grad school and in part because I find the conflicts somewhat--less than exciting. I sometimes feel like the writers have been hold that they have to write using half their brains tied behind their backs or something like that. They are handicapped in what they can do because they have to be so careful to have only "good" language and only "good" people. That said, I have enjoyed Dene Hughes' historical Children of the Promise series and I think there are some interesting things happening in the world of Mormon fiction at the moment. There is more and more crossover between a national audience, genre readers, and the Mormon audience and I think this is a good thing. Especially since my very first rejection letter was from Deseret Book and it was because "we don't publish books that fictionalize heaven or angels." A policy that obviously changed shortly afterward.
I met Sheralyn Pratt at a book signing recently. I have become pretty steeled about not buying books at book signings because authors are often very pleasant, but this does not necessarily signify that their writing will appeal to me and I can't afford just to buy a book to be nice. The funny thing was that Sheralyn was saying exactly the same thing to someone else. I listened to her surreptitiously and found out that we agreed on many things. When she said that she had some "content" in her latest book that was causing some problems in Mormon bookstores, I took a chance and bought the first book in her series, despite the fact that she said she had self-published it in college years ago. I had high hopes, but I admit, I was nervous about opening it up in case I really hated it. I'd gone out to dinner with her after the signing and liked her a lot. What if I hated her book? It can be so awkward. I know a number of author friends who say they actually make a rule not to read books by other local author friends just so that they can avoid hating books by people they like.
Well, no fear there. The story is a mystery with a P.I. named Rhea Jensen. She isn't a Mormon and for about half the book I wondered in what sense this was "Mormon fiction" at all. I liked the prickly relationship with the boyfriend. I liked her backstory with her mother. I LOVED the way that she earned extra money by finishing cases on a reverse clock, with bonuses the faster she finds out the truth. I also liked the sass in the voice. It was never dark or grating, never cynical. It was fun and easy to read and believable and I never once stumbled over a clunky sentence or groaned at a cliche that was not apt. I never thought there were easy answers to questions that so many Mormons seem to want to believe are easy, like--God lets bad things happen because he will make it all better in heaven.
Then the Mormon element appeared. Rhea meets by chance some Mormon missionaries while she is on a stake out. This could have felt gratuitous and like a slap in the face. But it didn't. She dismisses them, takes their book without much thought of reading it. She only goes back to it later when she has time, and she only really thinks about it seriously when she is in a life-or-death situation. It felt like something her character as it had been presented so far would do. She ends up being baptized and losing the boyfriend as a result, which to me felt like a realistic ending. People who join the Mormon church as adults end up losing people in their lives. They make sacrifices. But on the other hand, Rhea got back the sense of her mother's presence which to her was very important. And I have the feeling that there are a lot of challenges in store for this character as she finds out that Mormons maybe aren't as perfect as they would like to be.
October 3, 2012
15 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Plot
What happens the moment after the story ends?
What happened the moment before the story began?
Why must the story begin with the part told first?
What are the pivotal moments that might have been changed? How might that have affected the course of the world?
Why do these people need each other? Why must they come together? What do they have to give each other?
Do I surprise the reader with every chapter?
Do I satisfy the reader so that the ending matches the beginning?
Does my reader see, feel, hear, smell, taste, and touch the whole world?
Will my reader be moved by the climax?
Is my climax inevitable?
Do I keep hold of all my threads?
Do I spend the right amount of time on the right scenes according to their importance to the plot?
Am I aware of when readers will be disappointed? Do I want them to feel that way?
What cliches am I using and how do I subvert them?
Do I give away what I want to give away, when I want to give it away?
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